[Question] Please share informed advice 4 helping someone ride Rise of the R.

[jcruise86]

Imagine a friend of yours will soon visit Disneyland and his biggest goal is to ride Rise of the Resistance.

You can't talk him out of it, so--if you're a Diz Wiz--what advice do you have for him to help him get to experience this attraction?

Please assume he knows nothing about fast passes, MaxPass, or early entry, and assume he will NOT be staying at a Disneyland hotel.

(Note: I read that FP is now an option for Disneyland's Smuggler's Run, and things could change for R. of the R as well.)

[Mark Twain]

maybe he can get a plaid tour package that will ensure him riding on it?

[GreatAndoski]

If I was you, I would first have lunch with my friend and explain fastpass/maxpass/etc so he doesn't waste time and gets the most he can out of his visit. I would also ask how he's arriving to the resort (i.e. by car or by foot), and make sure he understands the amount of time involved in actually getting into the park. If he doesn't know how long it will/could take to pay for parking, park, get screened, ride tram, etc, then he might get there far too late to even have a shot at RotR.

As for RotR specifically, I would tell your friend to thoroughly read Tom Bricker's "RotR Disneyland Strategy Guide" article, and/or micechat's "Everything You Need to Know About Getting a Boarding Group" article. I would tell him to make sure he fully understands everything presented in those articles, and to let me know if anything he reads doesn't make sense or requires further clarification. I would encourage him to do RotR virtual queue "dry runs" at park opening time from home, so he knows how the app works, knows what he needs to do, and knows what success looks like (if you're doing a dry run from home, "success" is getting an "oops, it doesn't look like you're in the park" message).

Florida just announced that they're adding MFSR to their Fastpass+ roster in a few weeks. Disneyland has made no such announcement; their MFSR will turn on its fastpass machines some day, but there's no hint or guidance as to when.

There's no reason to think that the RotR virtual queue will be going away any time soon.

[Eagleman]

I need go to a special class.....

"Strategy Guide"

The way Disney is running the parks today .....to even try to

share informed advice

[spinycactus]

Imagine a friend of yours will soon visit Disneyland and his biggest goal is to ride Rise of the Resistance.

You can't talk him out of it, so--if you're a Diz Wiz--what advice do you have for him to help him get to experience this attraction?

Please assume he knows nothing about fast passes, MaxPass, or early entry, and assume he will NOT be staying at a Disneyland hotel.

(Note: I read that FP is now an option for Disneyland's Smuggler's Run, and things could change for R. of the R as well.)

My advice would be as follows:

1. Go to Disneyland Daily's website and read their tutorials that explain ALL about: Fast Passes, Max Pass, EMH, etc.

2. Go to Disneyland Daily's post about Galaxy's Edge and how to get on ROTR.

3. Then go read the Disney Tourist Blog post on the same subject (https://www.disneytouristblog.com/st...rategy-report/).

4. If they're traveling to Disneyland from far away and need to stay in a hotel, stay at a hotel on Harbor Blvd. A hotel within a 10 min walk of the main entrance.

5. If possible, I'd give the friend an in person tutorial on how to use the Disneyland app, how to find info on it, etc. If not possible to do in person, I'd verbally walk the friend through it over the phone or send the person to a YouTube video that gives a good overview tutorial.

Then after all that, I'd give the person these instructions for getting on ROTR:

1. Get your butt out of bed early. If the regular park opening is 8:00 am, get to the Esplanade at 7:00 am.
2. Buy your park tickets online BEFORE YOU GET THERE!
3. Download the Disneyland app to your phone AHEAD OF TIME!
4. Get a Disneyland app/website login ID. Put in that login ID and password to the app BEFORE YOU GET THERE!
5. Download the Disneyland app on EVERYBODY'S PHONE for EVERY PERSON in your group. Make sure there's a login ID and password set up for each. It's ok if your family uses all the same login account for it.
6. When you've had your tickets scanned and you are INSIDE Disneyland itself (not DCA), go in the app and make sure that ALL of the tickets show up there for everybody in your group who's going to ride ROTR together. If you all didn't purchase your tickets together, then you will need to scan in their tickets onto your phone and they'll need to scan YOUR tickets into THEIR phone. VERY IMPORTANT TO DO THIS BEFORE OFFICIAL PARK OPENING TIME!
7. Now go and hard close ALL apps on your phone.
8. Turn off Bluetooth.
9. Turn off WiFi. You'll need a data plan activated on your cell phone account.
10. Do a hard reboot of your phone...power off and power back on.
11. Find a spot on Main Street or somewhere in the hub or anywhere where your phones have good reception (as many bars as possible).
12. Get in position with all of this and be ready 5 min before park opening (8:00 am for the sake of this example).
13. Use an atomic clock app or go on a website like time.gov and watch the time. Depending on the speed of your phone, 10-15 sec before 8:00 am, launch the Disneyland app.
14. When you see the time hit 8:00 am with the DL app open, now click the "Find Out More" button that will appear on the main screen.
15. If "Join Boarding Group" button at the bottom right is highlighted in red, click it.
16. The app will automatically have check boxes selected for everybody's tickets who are linked in the app on your phone. If there's somebody who IS NOT IN THE PARK YET, then you need to REMOVE that person's ticket from your phone BEFORE 8:00 AM. Otherwise, just click the appropriate button to proceed with joining a boarding group.
17. EVERYBODY IN YOUR GROUP NEEDS TO DO THIS TOGETHER AT THE SAME TIME. Whoever gets the boarding group first will see it on their screen which boarding group # was assigned. A moment later, everybody else will be given a notice on THEIR phones that they can't be given a boarding group because they were just added to one.
18. If "Join Boarding Group" button is NOT RED, then click the "My Status" button at bottom left of the screen. If you're lucky, on that next screen, the "Join Boarding Group" button will let you proceed. If it does not, click the back arrow (top left of screen) and try again.
19. And most importantly, before this all begins, pray to the gods in the Jedi Temple that the Force will be with you and your crew as you enter the biggest daily Star Wars lottery ever. Haha!

[spinycactus]

One more thing to add:
Above all else, I'd advise my friend to NOT make the trip SOLELY about this ONE ride. I'd tell him/her to go in with the attitude that if they luck out and get a ROTR boarding group, then that's pretty dang awesome. BUT to also go in with the attitude that if you do NOT get a boarding group that day or any day of that trip, it does NOT mean that your trip is "ruined" because there's a whole lot of additional awesome stuff that you can experience at Disneyland as well.

Oh...I'd also tell my friend to possibly time his/her trip to be in the middle of the week. Or at least make 2 of his/her park days to be a Tues-Wed or a Wed-Thurs. And to avoid Mondays if possible.

[stovk]

My advice would be as follows:

1. Go to Disneyland Daily's website and read their tutorials that explain ALL about: Fast Passes, Max Pass, EMH, etc.

2. Go to Disneyland Daily's post about Galaxy's Edge and how to get on ROTR.

3. Then go read the Disney Tourist Blog post on the same subject (https://www.disneytouristblog.com/st...rategy-report/).

4. If they're traveling to Disneyland from far away and need to stay in a hotel, stay at a hotel on Harbor Blvd. A hotel within a 10 min walk of the main entrance.

5. If possible, I'd give the friend an in person tutorial on how to use the Disneyland app, how to find info on it, etc. If not possible to do in person, I'd verbally walk the friend through it over the phone or send the person to a YouTube video that gives a good overview tutorial.

Then after all that, I'd give the person these instructions for getting on ROTR:

1. Get your butt out of bed early. If the regular park opening is 8:00 am, get to the Esplanade at 7:00 am.
2. Buy your park tickets online BEFORE YOU GET THERE!
3. Download the Disneyland app to your phone AHEAD OF TIME!
4. Get a Disneyland app/website login ID. Put in that login ID and password to the app BEFORE YOU GET THERE!
5. Download the Disneyland app on EVERYBODY'S PHONE for EVERY PERSON in your group. Make sure there's a login ID and password set up for each. It's ok if your family uses all the same login account for it.
6. When you've had your tickets scanned and you are INSIDE Disneyland itself (not DCA), go in the app and make sure that ALL of the tickets show up there for everybody in your group who's going to ride ROTR together. If you all didn't purchase your tickets together, then you will need to scan in their tickets onto your phone and they'll need to scan YOUR tickets into THEIR phone. VERY IMPORTANT TO DO THIS BEFORE OFFICIAL PARK OPENING TIME!
7. Now go and hard close ALL apps on your phone.
8. Turn off Bluetooth.
9. Turn off WiFi. You'll need a data plan activated on your cell phone account.
10. Do a hard reboot of your phone...power off and power back on.
11. Find a spot on Main Street or somewhere in the hub or anywhere where your phones have good reception (as many bars as possible).
12. Get in position with all of this and be ready 5 min before park opening (8:00 am for the sake of this example).
13. Use an atomic clock app or go on a website like time.gov and watch the time. Depending on the speed of your phone, 10-15 sec before 8:00 am, launch the Disneyland app.
14. When you see the time hit 8:00 am with the DL app open, now click the "Find Out More" button that will appear on the main screen.
15. If "Join Boarding Group" button at the bottom right is highlighted in red, click it.
16. The app will automatically have check boxes selected for everybody's tickets who are linked in the app on your phone. If there's somebody who IS NOT IN THE PARK YET, then you need to REMOVE that person's ticket from your phone BEFORE 8:00 AM. Otherwise, just click the appropriate button to proceed with joining a boarding group.
17. EVERYBODY IN YOUR GROUP NEEDS TO DO THIS TOGETHER AT THE SAME TIME. Whoever gets the boarding group first will see it on their screen which boarding group # was assigned. A moment later, everybody else will be given a notice on THEIR phones that they can't be given a boarding group because they were just added to one.
18. If "Join Boarding Group" button is NOT RED, then click the "My Status" button at bottom left of the screen. If you're lucky, on that next screen, the "Join Boarding Group" button will let you proceed. If it does not, click the back arrow (top left of screen) and try again.
19. And most importantly, before this all begins, pray to the gods in the Jedi Temple that the Force will be with you and your crew as you enter the biggest daily Star Wars lottery ever. Haha!

What would Walt think?

[greenalfonzo]

Go on a day it is forecast to be raining all morning.

[GreatAndoski]

What would Walt think?

I'm guessing something like "what the hell is bluetooth?"

[Steven Fonzi Brown]

My advice would be as follows:

1. Go to Disneyland Daily's website and read their tutorials that explain ALL about: Fast Passes, Max Pass, EMH, etc.

2. Go to Disneyland Daily's post about Galaxy's Edge and how to get on ROTR.

3. Then go read the Disney Tourist Blog post on the same subject (https://www.disneytouristblog.com/st...rategy-report/).

4. If they're traveling to Disneyland from far away and need to stay in a hotel, stay at a hotel on Harbor Blvd. A hotel within a 10 min walk of the main entrance.

5. If possible, I'd give the friend an in person tutorial on how to use the Disneyland app, how to find info on it, etc. If not possible to do in person, I'd verbally walk the friend through it over the phone or send the person to a YouTube video that gives a good overview tutorial.[/LIST]

Yeah, I second the recommendation for Disneyland Daily. Casey does an awesome job keeping her strategies simple, practical/realistic, and up-to-date. If you send your friend to her Facebook page, she's had some posts lately where she walks you through the ROTR boarding group process.

[Jesser-pie]

It’s a bit annoying but to attempt to simplify it for your hypothetical friend:

ROTR can only handle so many people, so Disney is doing a reservation only system. Tell your friend to consider it like a popular new restaurant that isn’t taking walk-ins; you need to book a reservation in order to reserve a seat. Reservations for the ride are called “Boarding Groups”, but for ease of familiarity, I will use reservation in this explanation.

Like any popular new thing, your friend is not alone and should understand the high demand means the supply is further limited. Thus, they should expect to make some special efforts in order to secure a hot reservation. Knowing this makes the process easier to swallow IMHO.

This is also where it gets tricky: Reservations cannot be booked in advance (day-of only). Your friend needs to learn how to take advantage if they have a smartphone (if they do not, that’s fine but that is their choice and they shouldn’t expect to be catered to. They may be able to get a reservation without a smartphone but like most older, manual processes, it takes longer and thus the faster process may give out all the reservations before they are able to secure theirs). Hence, recommend to your friend to use their smartphone and download the free Disneyland app so the may book it through their phone.

Be there shortly before it opens (the park will let you in physically before the official time. 15-20 minutes before official start is more than enough. They do not need to arrive much earlier and they will not benefit in doing so as the reservations will NOT be given until the park officially opens). As someone earlier said in the thread, 7 arrival to the parking lot is good for 8 start time because that typically gives you enough time to park, get through security and ride the tram to get to the gates.

After entering the park, extra time waiting for the reservations to open is good because your friend needs to use this to set up their ticket in the app (menu button > Tickets and Passes> plus sign in the top right corner). If you friend is understandably annoyed at this additional step, they are not alone, but there is a good reason for this: one reservation per person. By tracking the the tickets in the reservation, Disney can enforce this rule (so no single customer hogs multiple reservations). It’s not fun, but fair. Once again, I personally finding understanding why we must jump through hoops helps them feel less annoying and that is why stress this here.

Once their ticket (and friend’s/family’s*) are set up in the app. Close out the app (to save time refreshing the data that tells the app that the reservations are open). Open the app once start time hits. The boarding group link for the ride is on the first page of the app. Tap the “find out more” button and then tap “Join Boarding group” to begin the brief process.

They will be assigned a number and will be notified on the app when their number can board (they will have window, so no rush). It may be a while, so tell them to start their day and enjoy the park. It beats standing in line for 4 hours to me.

They know nothing of MP or FP, but in this case they don’t need to because there is none for this ride currently. In this hypothetical day, I might suggest they take advantage and learn, but it is not related to riding ROTR.

*You cannot include people who have not arrived/scanned in the park in the reservation. Thus, if your friend Bob is coming later in the day, you cannot include him your reservation.

[jcruise86]

THANKS TO ALL OF YOU for all the advice! I feel delightfully overwhelmed,
and hopefully some of our fellow Micechatters will better access this great new attraction because of your help.

[Captain Andy]

Hi all,

Additional question to add to this thread -- if I arrive around 7:20AM to the esplanade, is that considered cutting it a bit close? How quickly have they been scanning people in? What's the latest time you can scurry in to score a chance at getting on this ride (asking for opinions, of course).

Thank you in advance!

[Char123abc]

7:20 at the esplanade is ok on one condition, you are physically inside the park by 8. The boarding groups are gone within a few minutes.

The pattern so far is the admit guests inside 30min prior to the park opening. So far all the people in the entrance line at the opening time have made it inside. The issue becomes if you arrive at the esplanade at 7:45, it might be close.

[Captain Andy]

7:20 at the esplanade is ok on one condition, you are physically inside the park by 8. The boarding groups are gone within a few minutes.

The pattern so far is the admit guests inside 30min prior to the park opening. So far all the people in the entrance line at the opening time have made it inside. The issue becomes if you arrive at the esplanade at 7:45, it might be close.

Good to know, thank you! I'm still one of those blokes who takes public transportation in Anaheim... Whatever I can do to dodge those expensive parking lots.

[spinycactus]

Hi all,

Additional question to add to this thread -- if I arrive around 7:20AM to the esplanade, is that considered cutting it a bit close? How quickly have they been scanning people in? What's the latest time you can scurry in to score a chance at getting on this ride (asking for opinions, of course).

Thank you in advance!

That probably depends on what day of the week you're going. There's a 180+ page thread on this topic on the Disneyland section of Disboards. People report in on there daily about what time they got to the esplanade, what time they actually got into the park, etc. I know that last weekend, it was pretty crazy, especially for people parking at Mickey & Friends...some people parked in that parking structure at 6:45 am but didn't get into the park until AFTER 8 am.